Showing posts with label artifact. Show all posts
Showing posts with label artifact. Show all posts

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Review of Tumble Magnet ** Doesn’t Work Well In Many Scenarios.

If you are able to proliferate, then this card may worth it.  That is a huge if!  However, there are a lot of cards that one can put counters on, especially in Commander, and Tumble Magnet isn’t one of the better ones.  The cost is 3, and you get to tap an artifact or creature once a turn.  I think of it this way, 3 taps for paying 3 mana.  There are a lot of instances that can take advantage of that.  Thus, the other way of arguing that this card is good is that it is an artifact, and artifacts can often be used in schemes.  However, many types of cards can be used in schemes, so I don’t count that it is merely an artifact as an advantage.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Review of Druidic Satchel ** I wouldn’t Put I In Your Best Deck.

A lot of people think this card is pretty cool, but I don’t. You pay three to caste it. Then, you pay another 2 on gamble. Only one of these gambles is a good scenario. That is if you get a basic land. However, consider this, if you pay 3 to caste it, and then 2 to use it’s a ability, what you have really done is paid 5 on a gamble! Paying 5 mana to get one land is way too much. And, my guess is that you will have 50 or less mana in your deck, such that really there is only a 50% chance of the optimal scenario occurring. However, if you wind up with a 1/1 Saproling, that is 1 more mana that you ought to pay for it. A 1/1 without any other abilities should cost 1 mana, not even factoring in its casting cost. The other ability gaining two life probably isn’t going to win you any games.

Look at it this way. You will probably only use this cards ability three times, and figure that it will give you a 1/1 Saproling, 2 life, and a basic land the three times it is used. Totaling up the mana you will have spent to do this, that’s 3+2+2+2 or 9 mana! In order for this card to be worth it, a land is worth paying 2 mana for, a Saproling is worth paying 1 mana for and a gaining to life is worth paying 1 for. This is 2+1+1, or 4. So really, with Saproling, you have spent 9 mana to get a value of 4 mana. However, because once Saproling is caste, it stays on the field, that is worth and extra 2 mana. For example, on your turn if you have 2 mana leftover, you could use Druidic Satchels ability. So adding 2 to 4 still doesn’t get this card up to 9. Thus, I don’t see it as that great of a card.

If you do put it in a deck, then you will probably want it to be green and white. So, I especially don’t recommend it for a monocolor deck, but it could have benefits in a Saproling, and life gaining scenario.